A snap general election has been called for December 12th 2019, the first general election to take place in December since 1923.
Now, people are being called on to register to vote in their constituencies for their local MPs and, ultimately, who they think the next Prime Minister should be.
The date of the election falls at a time when a large number of university students are completing course deadlines, and so there is a worry that many students may not vote.
Students can vote using either their university or home address and, while it is legal to be registered in two areas, it is a criminal offence to vote in both.
If students are already registered at their home address, they can use a postal vote or proxy vote if they are unable to return home on election day.
A proxy voter must be aged 18 or over and also registered to vote. If you are unexpectedly incapacitated due to illness for example, you can apply for an emergency proxy as long as it is before 5pm on the day of the vote.
This article will tell you how to register to vote on the government website in case you didn’t know already.
First, you’re going to need access to the internet if you’re registering online.
The website to access for this is Gov.uk.
On this page, there will be a green button that reads ‘start now’ under the subtitle ‘Voting Online’.
Click this and it will take you to an online application where it will ask you for your name, date of birth, nationality and address.
On this form, you will also be asked to provide your national insurance number, so make sure you know this. You may also be asked to provide you passport if you are a UK citizen living abroad. You will also be asked to provide your old address if you have moved house in the past 12 months.
If you don’t want to register online, you are also able to apply with a paper form, which can be accessed just below the ‘Register to Vote Online’ section. This will ask you all the same questions, but you will have to post this out so make sure you post it ASAP as the deadline to register is November 26th.
This format may be useful if you have family or friends without internet access and wish to vote in the next election.
Remember that you must be over the age of 16 to register to vote online, and over 18 to actually vote in the general election.
So make sure you register to vote before the deadline of: Midnight on November 26th.